Search

Categories

Archives

Archives

Me

Cooking for me is very stimulating. It combines equal portions art, science and adventure! Every new dish I prepare is like a journey of discovery which I feel like sharing with others, and hence this blog.

I’ve always loved cooking, first with my mother and then since marriage, with my mother-in-law. Both of them have taught me many of the dishes I’ve cooked and also encouraged my interest in learning about these dishes. While my mother’s cooking was mainly from south Karnataka, my mother-in-law’s is from the coast, mainly the Udupi/Kundapura region.

Since moving to the US, I’ve also been exposed to many other cuisines from around the world. Trying them at home, and making them a success has been a very satisfying experience.

I’ve modified many of the recipes that I’ve come across, either to make them vegetarian, or to make them easier to make, or even to make them more flavorful. Sometimes for all three!

I hope you find something you like in my blog. Do try these recipes and let me know if you like them. Your comments will be highly appreciated!

For the love of cooking

Tag Archives: Flour

Back again after a short break. My brother-in-law is an entrepreneur and launched his product in March. You can click on the below link for more information. http://www.automatic.com/. We were all excited about the launch and I wanted to treat him with something special. So came up with this coconut cupcake idea and baked it. This was just a starter for him 🙂 We had a wonderful dinner afterwards.

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line up 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Beat the butter in your electric mixer or stand mixer for two minutes. Add the sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes until smooth. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Mix in vanilla extract until soft and fluffy. Add flour and milk alternatively (starting and ending with flour) and mix everything until well incorporated.

Evenly fill all the liners.

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Do not over the cupcakes.

Allow it to cool on a wire rack. Smear the frosting on the cupcake using a spatula and garnish with roasted shredded coconut flakes on top. (Dip the frosted side of the cake in a bowl containing coconut flakes).

Frosting:

Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth (2-3 minutes). Add vanilla extract and beat for a minute. Mix sugar in small portions at a time and beat well until it forms stiff peaks. Add a tablespoon of milk if too thick or add little sugar if the mixture is thin.

Seeing my history of using dark chocolate, I don’t really have to explain how obsessed I am with dark chocolates. I always feel so good about making a fresh batch of cookies. Well these cookies are very similar to the one printed on the bag of Nestle’s Chocolate Chips. I prefer the cookies to be a bit chewy with caramelized edges and hence make use of both brown and white sugar.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F and line the baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add white and brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time making sure you beat well after each addition. Add in the vanilla extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the mixture slowly to the liquid mixture and mix well until no lumps are visible. Add in the chocolate chips and give it a nice stir. If the dough is very soft, refrigerate for an hour.

Using two spoons drop about two tbsp of dough onto the baking sheet. Make sure there is enough spacing between the dough to rise and flatten. Bake for 12- 14 minutes and cool it completely on a wire rack before tasting!

Brownies are wonderful “cakey” or “fudgy” type of dessert which goes superbly well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or just plain…Am I right? I have tried many different type of brownies and this recipe brings me a complete satisfaction in terms of slight crispness on the outside and soft chewy texture on the inside. Addition of dark chocolate morsels gives it a nice chocolatey flavor and no one can eat just one!

Microwave for a minute or 2 until the mixture forms a smooth paste. (Do not boil the mixture, they have to just melt). Add sugar, pure vanilla extract and mix well. Add in the eggs one by one and give it a quick stir. Now add, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder and salt.

Mix until no lumps are visible. Finally add the dark chocolate morsels and stir. Pour the mixture to a 8 inch greased square pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Perfect brownies are done when little crumbs stick to the tooth pick when inserted.

Last week my fruit basket was filled with bananas. Some how my husband and I both shopped for them and ended up with two bunches of bananas at home. So I thought to make use of some bananas by making the bread. Since I had already prepared banana walnut bread, I thought of making chocolate pecan this time. The bananas were ripe enough which was perfect for baking. The flavor of banana and chocolate while baking was irresistible. My 19 month old son was not ready to come out of the kitchen until I removed the bread out of the oven. He loved having it more than anyone!

Well the word chocolate itself is mouth-watering to me! And I bet there are many chocoholics out there. I have tried many versions of chocolate cupcakes and I am very sure I will stick with recipe from now on. These cupcakes are so moist that you feel like having more of it. I had taken these cupcakes for a potluck party at my workplace and it was no doubt a great hit 🙂 All thanks to joy of baking which had this wonderful cupcake recipe which I fell in love with. Just changed the original recipe a bit for my taste buds and here I present the recipe to you all…

Pre-heat the oven to 375°F Line 16 cupcake liners and keep it ready. Whisk all the dry ingredients like salt, baking powder and all-purpose flour, keep aside. In another bowl mix the hot water and cocoa powder until smooth and bring the mixture to room temperature.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, use a hand mixer or an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in vanilla extract.

Bake for 17-19 minutes until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Do not over bake the cupcakes as they will lose the moistness. Remove from oven and cool them on a wire rack.

Once the cupcakes cools,you can smear the frosting on the cupcake using a spatula or if you have a piping, use a large 1M thick open star tip to make the swirls on the cupcake.

Frosting:

Melt the chocolate pieces in the microwave or place the heat proof bowl with chocolate on a saucepan of simmering water. Mix it until it melts and forms a smooth texture.

In another bowl beat the butter well, add the powdered sugar and beat again. Mix it until smooth and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and the melted chocolate, beat until smooth and glossy for about 3-4 minutes.

Mexican wedding cakes also known as Russian tea cakes or butter cookies are very delicious and just melts in the mouth. As butter is the main ingredient, it is very important to use a high quality butter to get a rich taste. Use of any kind of nuts gives a very nice nutty flavor and taste.

Toast the nuts at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes until light brown, cool down before grinding to get a powdered mixture or else you will end up getting a lump. Use a hand mixer or food processor to mix the butter and 1/2 cup of confectionary sugar until smooth and creamy. Add in vanilla extract and mix again. In a separate bowl mix salt and all-purpose flour. Add the flour slowly and mix it completely until incorporated. Finally add the nut mixture and bring the mixture into a dough. Wrap the dough and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350°C. Spray the cookie sheet with baking spray or use a parchment paper. Scoop 1 tbsp or 100 oz of mixture, make it in to a round shape and line up the dough 2 inches apart.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the edges and the bottom just turn light golden brown.

Spread 1 cup of confectionary sugar on a flat bottom. As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, take a spatula and slowly grab the cookie and toss and turn the cookie in the sugar. The cookie should be completely coated with sugar. If you not a sugar person as I am, you can just sprinkle some sugar on top as well. Make sure you cool it completely before tasting it!

I was a crazy fan of this fruit and nut cake when I was a small kid and I am now too! My neighbor used to never miss making this cake on the occasion of Christmas and I used to never miss going to her house to eat it. She baked it really well and the taste was heavenly. I knew she used to add eggs and little rum to get the flavor and texture. For a long time I wanted to bake this cake but I was looking for a eggless cake specially for my mom who prefers to eat eggless and finally got a good recipe from show me the curry. Frankly, I was never anticipating such an outcome. It turned out so fluffily and perfect. We could just not wait for the cake to cool and were digging in to have our share!

Ingredients:

Raisins, cranberries, tutty fruity or any other glazed fruit- 1/3 cup of each (1 cup total)

Bring two cups of water to boil adding raisins and cranberries or any other chopped dried friut for 10 minutes, closing the lid.

Turn off the heat and allow it to cool for 5 minutes. Add butter and stir to mix it completely and keep aside. Cool it further for another 10 minutes. Mix sifted all purpose flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder and salt.

Stir in the dry ingredients into water which has butter, raisins and cranberries. Mix everything completely and finally add chopped nuts, tutty fruity or glazed fruits if any.

Mix it well and pour it into a sprayed bunt cake pan or any regular 12″ baking pan.

Bake at 350°F for 35-40 minutes depending on your oven. Tooth pick inserted should come out clean when done.

Allow it to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, loosen the edges with a buttered knife, turn it upside down on a cooling rack and cool further for few minutes, before cutting the cake.